You owe us one because really? You thought we didn't know that the beach is your favorite place? Give us a little bit of credit here. P.S. I only comment anonymously because I lack the imagination to create my own online presence.

You know I always wanted to learn to play the piano and a year ago my son said he wanted to learn, so both kids and I have been learning together -really peaceful and enjoyable for me, even though I won't be the next Mozart or anything and even though I know it's kind of silly - middle aged women at piano lessons, but oh well!

re #23, "I never learned to play a musical instrument" - I was on a cruise, so I might have missed something, but are you going to die? I started on the guitar at 43. Take care of #23 asap. (However, I'd start with the steel drum. I love those.)

Regarding the Master's degree, work backwards. Graduate degrees are highly overrated except as a means to an end. People with Master's and Doctoral degrees are no better, smarter, etc. than anyone else in general. Take my word for it, I am getting a PhD after working in the "real world" and I find the people around me to be pretty clueless. Academia really is out of touch with the real world. Many of the people couldn't make it in the real world. I come from a family of PhD's, and they are no better. If a Master's (or PhD, shudder) gets you to a job/career that you want, go for it. I think that things are changing with Wikipedia and other Internet resources as well as community colleges and technical schools. I think that traditional academia is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and more students and families will start waking up to the fact that there are better alternatives to the traditional ivory tower university.